Harper Reese- 18 Months Old!

Harper turned 18 months old on Thanksgiving Day this year and we couldn't have more to be thankful for. She's thriving and learning and doing so many new things everyday it's hard to keep track of it all. And, she's as cute as a button, for goodness sakes!

Harper is obsessed with the song "happy" by Pharrell (they play it at daycare and all of the kids dance together!) and it's truly the best way I can describe the past month (I even got her this sweater as an ode to her favorite song). Yes, there are tantrums and dramatics, of course, but Harper has been the most smiley and sweet little girl this past month. She learned to say "happy" and now she says it constantly and it usually means she wants to hear the song---and she does a little dance to it too. Even in her car seat, she will try to wiggle her torso and dance to "happy." She just kills me.
Some highlights from the past month:
Lots of new words (and she repeats everything, so watch out!): heart, happy, yay, pants, knee, uno, doz and quattro (one, two and four in Spanish), blue, hi dad!, wash, mouth, meow, "nou nou" (lulu), down, nice (while she pets and animal or doll), walrus, mouse, sit, stop, turtle, minnie mouse, airplane, beach, yellow, green, plate, harper (she says it like "arrper"), pretty, sit, airplane, cute, "ho ho ho" for Santa, merry, nana (banana), oval.

One of my most favorite pictures ever…even though I look like I rolled out of bed.

A couple of months ago, Lulu finally warmed up more to Harper. He would barely go near her when she was a baby and we were really careful about their interactions since he can be skiddish. But now, they actually play together a bit and she can pet him when we do. She is also obsessed with walking around with him in her stroller and cries when it's over. I'm surprised he tolerates it and doesn't just abandon ship, but I think he has grown to like it somewhat because he just sits there as she happily walks around with him. She calls him "nou nou," and it's adorable. He has this toy that's a plush octopus with a squeaky that we call "octy" and the runs after him yelling "octy octy!" and throws it to him.
Harper is now in a phase where she is talking non-stop about everything around her. The other day we were at the park and she heard a plane, looked up, pointed to it, and said "airplane," which I had never heard her say before. Now, even if we are inside of the house and she hears and airplane, she says "airplane airplane!" excitedly.
She knows most of her colors now and correctly identifies them most of the time.

When we were in the Bahamas, Harper was in the ocean for the first time and she loved it. She would laugh and smile every time the waves would hit her feet. We even got knocked over a couple of times and she loved it. She also loved the pool and playing with her sand bucket. It was cool to see her reactions to the new experiences. There was also a water slide in the splash pad that she went down with Kevin and she loved that…for about 7 minutes and then she had an epic meltdown (still in the water).
She started to copy us when we sing songs---she will sing the same notes as us and it's absolutely adorable. Her favorite songs are "ring around the rosie" (we all hold hands and fall down together), wheels on the bus, ba ba black sheep, baby beluga, row row row your boat, if you're happy and you know it…she can do the actions for all of the songs too--- it's adorable--- my favorite is when she puts her hands at her eyes for "the babies on the bus go wa wa wa," she does does it in such a cute way.

She's still shy in new situations but sometimes she surprises us---she hams it up pretty often if she's in the right mood. In the Bahamas she would always wave and say bye to everyone at the restaurant. She would also dance in her highchair (more like a wiggle with some arm action) when she heard a song she liked during dinner.
She has a new "game" she plays with Kevin and me where she takes turns running back and forth between us and giving us kisses and hugs. She thinks it's hilarious and laughs the entire time.

She says "ho ho ho" for Santa and can say "merry." We are working on "merry Christmas!"

In the Bahamas, she loved playing drums. There were these little shops that sold them and she would hear the live music outside and play the drums and dance.

She has also mastered the fake cry and dramatic meltdown. I swear I could contribute daily to the #whymytoddleriscrying hash tag.

She's getting picker with food, which I expected she would. She loves fruit, carbs and cheese (duh). She will still eat her veggies when she wants to. She also likes salmon but has periods of love and hate for other meats.

I'm going to start giving more sporadic updates now that we are in full-on toddler mode, maybe every three months or so, but I'm so happy I kept up with her updates so I can look back on them. She has changed so much, it has truly been a gift to watch her grow and develop.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

PS…there are a lot of sales happening today…


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